I made another batch of Brunswick stew from a 3.3 lb. Boston butt yesterday. I defatted it, cut it into steaks and gave it lots of hickory on the Egg for about 45 minutes. It was then chopped finely and cooked with the other ingredients for about 5 hours. Good stuff!

....I'm doing some Christmas Butts. I'm doing them the Hot and Fast method for the first time today. Wish me luck.

Fat side up, a proprietary rub been on 'em for 24 hours+, no injection. I will spray them with apple juice as I put them in foil.

Deanne and I pulled those two butts between 11 and midnight last night and from what I saw and felt it was a success. I have NEVER cooked a Boston Butt higher than about 210º So this took about about 11 hours rather than 14. I will post what I did shortly.

It pulled nicely, and sortof was a surprise to us thinking that we would get less yield out of our almost 18 pounds of Boston Butt, but it was not so. The two butts were very different. I got almost 5.12 on one and 4.15 on the other one. It is always, always for me an adventure as I do them infrequently. I really do love the process, especially using the DigiQ II to control the draft and give me a really close temperature the entire time. I don''t open the egg but once or twice in a long cook. I did want to take pictures but did not for the sake of good data.

I'm going to foil them at 175° this time to see if I can get a more substantive product when pulled in 2 hours past the 175° reading. the butts have been double foiled, Blue bottled, honey'd, and a bit more rub applied.

One of these is a gift, the other one will be table fare for more than several days.

... This is always so much fun, I can't imagine what doing 200 or so of these Butts would be like, and I understand that there are several venues where that kind of traffic is common.

I'll put the internals here in a minute. You guys at 285F get it first, you know..

....

Here is my input at 7+ hours. Not being too much of a techie, (right), but this draft controller on the Big Green Egg, (or any other grill), in a some ways all the way from Weber kettles to many other charcoal or wood fired indirect cookers.

Dern, set this one at 136° grate temperature, make sure the clip sensor is engaged and go away. I have not changed an opening, added more fuel, added more hardwood, or anything. I set those two butts on there with ample preparation fondling, but pretty much un-enhanced. I did not inject, I did not brine, I did not go for dry aged pork. None of those terrific competition things. I just seasoned the dickens out of it, and now it is a smoking/roasting. These are two Sam's Club large pork shoulders. They have been fine in times past.

At 7 + hours I have 168° in one and 161° in the other, that is almost 3/4 of an hour of cook time IMO. That is unless the meat has reached some sort of plateau, -------- then all the rules hit the trash can.

I might be close in another hour and a half. I'll dutifully report my temps as I go along..

I am doing two Boston Butts for the 4th, one as as a gift, the other to feed our crowd. I went to Sam's and bought a two-pack of Butts that weighed about 19lbs. I trimmed them a bit and rubbed them with Myron Mixons rub and they are waiting until tomorrow for me to give them a 10-12 hour cook/smoke.

2 6lb butts and one 8lb butt off the Big Green Egg and ready to pull in a few minutes.

done on Appledone at 250º

I did these three a bit hotter then I usually do them, I reduced the cooking/smoking time by two hours, it saved me pulling pork at 2am. The 8 pound butt yielded 5 pounds of pulled pork, I didn't weigh the other two but they were pretty much consumed by our crowd here (with a few take-home plates) during our annual Christmas BBQ dinner.. Next year I want to do something way different, perhaps Geese, or even pork ribs. I am almost tired of trotting out the pulled pork for a crowd. Given different time constraints this year I would have done prime rib, but prime rib for 31 folks would have bee a bit pricey..

I'm doing 4 butts for Deanne's gradads 90th birthday party on Saturday. I am doing them two at a time.. Like I have said before about 3-4 times a year I wish I had an XL Big Green Egg, this is one of those weekends.

Dern, how many butt pictures can one guy post (he asked) ? These done on Thursday, two more on the Big Green Egg right now..

Funny you said sometimes you wish for a second Egg. I was at a reception for a local artist we know down here and his wife introduced me to a nice lady and mentioned that I cook and have an Egg. She said she has a large Egg and has never used it. I was encouraged to buy it off her but I just don't need another one, probably would be a deal though.